


A Nest

by beekeepercain



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Blind Character, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-04 01:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2903594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beekeepercain/pseuds/beekeepercain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Prompt:</b> "Could you do another blind!Gadreel x Sam one where Gadreel has a panic attack or a nightmare when sams not there and after Sam gives him his hoodie or a blanket or something to make him a 'safe place' ?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nest

* * *

 

Gadreel knew it wasn’t real. He struggled to wake; he knew the real world was just there, almost in his reach, but the cell held onto him tight and the chains - he felt them, physically, around his wrists and his body ached with the bruises and cuts that weren’t really there. It took him a long while to remember that no, he couldn’t actually  _feel_  anything, as there was absolutely nothing to feel, and that was his key to freedom: it broke the dream like the surface of water around him, scattered it apart like ashes in the wind, and he gasped for air as if he’d been submerged for minutes. He patted the bed around him, searched for the switch of the lamp; he found it by the bedside table exactly where it was supposed to be, turned it on and sat to wait. Sam had to be somewhere nearby: he never left for long. By the light of the lamp he would see Gadreel - he’d already know by the light itself that the older had woken up, even if it did no good for the fallen angel himself.

He tried to calm his breathing and concentrated on waiting instead; he heard no footsteps, but from further away he could almost swear the sound of water splashing into the sink’s porcelain carried to his ears. Sam would be there in a minute. He’d just went to the bathroom. It was alright. It would be alright. If only he could have believed it as firmly as the voice in his mind kept repeating the words; a voice not much unlike that of Sam’s, the memory of him echoing from the part of Gadreel’s mind that wanted him to think it was safe here now.

Gadreel wrapped his fingers around his wrist and rubbed at the place he’d felt the chains in. Nothing was there, and the bed felt like it was supposed to: even the lamp had been where he’d looked for it, so it was certain that he was home now. Still he sat upright and rigid like a statue when Sam’s footsteps finally echoed in the corridor, just in case; as if readiness would have spared him from Thaddeus’ blade.

"Gadreel?" the familiar, warm voice of Sam Winchester’s carried from the corridor.  
They’d both learned much already - there was no panic in Sam’s voice, just like Gadreel had first located familiar objects from around him when Sam hadn’t been there when he woke up. These were guidelines by which they tried to learn to live with the night terrors and the fear that haunted Gadreel by daylight in the new world of black that he inhabited; he turned now towards the voice without trying to aim directly towards it, as he was no longer sure where it exactly would come from, and he’d realised that trying to aim his blind eyes towards any target would fall short of the expectations and only serve to highlight that he did not, in fact, see whom he was talking to.

Sam entered the room speaking calmly: his weight landed on the bed and he pushed aside the blanket on which they’d sat. He brought his arm upon the older’s back and caressed it gently.  
"Nightmare? Or did you just wake up when I left?"

"Nightmare," Gadreel clarified.  
He shook to the memory and closed his eyes by instinct; the scarring around them felt odd every time pressure made him aware of it existing. It didn’t matter when he blinked or when he settled to sleep, but pressing his eyes closed always caused him to feel the unever surface that the escaping, breaking grace had left behind.

"Do you feel okay?"

"Not quite."

Gadreel could hear Sam nod; the slight shifting of his hair against his naked shoulders sounded soft but sudden, like wind shifting through a meadow, only much quieter, finer.  
He felt the younger drag the blanket again, but was surprised to feel him wrap him up in it instead now.

"You’ve never had a blanket fort, have you? One day when Dean’s coming back home for certain we need to build up one in the library just to freak him out," the younger spoke, a crooked smile in his voice.

Gadreel tilted his head, slightly breathless from the anxiety that resided within him. He held onto the blanket and only now realised he hadn’t just shivered before: he was still trembling.

"Give me a moment, I’m going to grab another blanket. We can’t make a fort here, or we can but it’d take too long - but we can totally build a nest."

"A… nest?" the older inquired, head tilting even further.

"In a second," Sam promised, and his presence faded from Gadreel’s side.  
His footsteps took him out of the room but he was back in less than a minute.  
"Catch," he called out, and Gadreel, reaching out a single hand from his blanket cocoon, felt a pillow hit him squarely on the palm.

"Nice," Sam commented, already ushering him further back on the bed.

Gadreel sat there utterly confused, holding a pillow on his lap with a half of him sticking out from a wrapped up blanket with the sounds of other blankets turning around him: occasionally a blast of air hit him as Sam spread and tugged down a corner or a side, releasing air that was trapped underneath.

"Okay. A nest. It looks horrible but I guess you won’t mind and it’s the thought that counts. Put the pillow where you want your head to be, I’ll add three more."

"Sam," Gadreel called out uncertainly, "Is the whole bed covered in blankets and pillows?"

"I told you," Sam chuckled, helping him guide the pillow to a suitable side of the round ‘nest’ he’d built, "It’s a safe place. You’ll need to curl up but it shouldn’t be too difficult to sleep in. I’m going to turn off the light now and join you."

"The  _nest_  is full of pillows,” Gadreel noted, hand sliding over one as he did what he’d been told and settled on his side, curled up around one extra pillow.

"I’ll fight my way in, don’t worry."

In a minute, he had done exactly that. Gadreel snuggled closer when he felt the man reach for him, and Sam wrapped an arm around his body before briefly releasing him again just to caress his face and push his fingertips through the older’s short hair. He was smiling: it was evident in the sound of his breathing and when Gadreel touched his face in turn, tracing the symmetry of his beautiful features with his fingertips to remember just how he looked. His smile caught onto him and suddenly he realised that all this had truly made him feel safe, and that although he now faced the wrong direction on the bed with his feet pointing at the side where their heads usually were, he felt good and comfortable there.

"You like it?" Sam asked. "It’s - uh - we sometimes did this with Dean back when we were kids and neither of us wanted to admit we were scared but we were, and it always helped. It’s - you know, you’re covered with a blanket and really close to someone safe and it feels like everythings gonna be alright. And it is, I promise. Everything’s gonna be okay."

"How long until morning?" Gadreel asked, his voice gentle and anything but dismissive although he wasn’t addressing what Sam had just told him.

"A few hours. We still have time to sleep, don’t worry."

The smile on the older’s face widened for the moment although in the darkness that now reigned in the room, Sam was no more aware of it than he was of Sam’s expressions. The realisation was strange to him and it prompted him to take the younger’s hand and guide it over to his lips, and Sam mapped out his smile just as he had mapped out his a mere moment ago.

"You’re beautiful," Gadreel said to him, feeling it was relevant to confess now when he brought his own fingertips back over the younger’s face.

"You, too."


End file.
